Apr. 29, 2013

People line up to enter the United States Supreme Court Building, April 22, 2013 in Washington, DC. / Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Written by

Richard Wolf

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has refused to reconsider a lower court's ruling that states cannot order school districts to check their students' citizenship status.

The decision lets stand a federal appeals court's ruling last year that went against Alabama, the only state with such a statute. The lower court had ruled that the provision singled out students who were in the country illegally.

Justice Antonin Scalia dissented from the Supreme Court's decision not to take the case. It takes four justices to put a case on the high court's docket.

The appeals court's decision upheld other parts of the Alabama law, including one that allowed police to check people's immigration documents when stopped for other purposes. A similar provision in Arizona was upheld by the court last year.